Hope for the Hopeless
by LuminiaAravis
Summary: Full summary inside. Mirai Trunks goes back in time to meet Bardock and goes Super Saiyan by accident. Besides completely baffling the crew, this opens up discussion about Bardock's ruinous personal life and the elusive Super Saiyan legend.


Aah! My attention span has been REALLY short lately, so I'm not really up to writing an entire fic right now... But here's an excerpt from an in-progress one. I just wanted to get it out there because I think it's pretty good, and it'll add to the short supply of Bardock-related fanfiction. Speak up if you want me to get my rear into gear and write more!

Here's what I see happening so far. Okay, a really really long story short: Mirai Trunks decided to go back in time to when planet Vegeta was still intact, before the birth of Goku. He goes undercover as a low-class soldier. He meets Bardock and joins his cell. On their first mission, Trunks loses it and goes super saiyan, blowing his cover. That's what's happened so far...

* * *

Dusk had fallen a long time ago on the heathen planet that sheltered four saiyan invaders that night. One half of the purge was complete. The other half was to be finished in the morning. Bardock's crew was getting some rest. Or, at least, that's what one of them was doing.

Trunks was fast asleep on the ground, curled up by the fire, mouth slightly open. The foliage was so dense in the canopy of the primeval forest that he didn't feel a single raindrop as he slept. Fasha, Tura, and Bardock himself were awake still, deep in conversation as Trunks was in sleep.

"I can't believe that the legendary super saiyan could come out of nowhere like that," Tura said. "I thought it would be king Vegeta for sure, or maybe his son, if he ever has one."

"And what about him being a bastard child?" Fasha commented. "I mean, the saiyan messiah is only half-saiyan. Isn't that weird?"

"A little too weird, don't you think?" Bardock mused, narrowing his eyes. "Tura, correct me if I'm wrong about this, but the original super saiyan legend says a lot about what the guy's supposed to be like, doesn't it?"

Tura snorted. "Yeah, it does, to a T. But are you really still skeptical after what happened today?"

"Maybe you're too quick to trust him," Bardock replied. "Ever think about that? The super saiyan is supposed to be a beast. He's supposed to love bloodshed, revel in death…"

"But above all," Tura said, "he has to have a pure heart."

"And Trunks does _seem_ to be pure…" Fasha added.

Bardock grumbled. "Exactly. He _seems_ to be a super saiyan. None of us knows what a super saiyan is supposed to look like. So how do we know that the blond hair and the blue eyes and the aura isn't from his alien blood? He could have all sorts of other forms that we don't know about. Now that I mention it, he could be a shape-shifter, or he could be in disguise. How _can_ you trust him?"

"How _can't_ you?" Fasha asked. "He hasn't done anything wrong! In fact, he's saved all our lives at least once. You still think he's a bad guy?"

"I can't be sure," Bardock replied. "But I'm sure that I'm still alive today because I choose my friends very, very carefully, and I never let my enemies out of my sight."

"Keeping friends close and enemies closer," Tura commented. "That's good advice. But seriously, Bardock, you're a world-famous skeptic. I remember when the new vaccine for zenitis came out, and it took us three years to convince you to get it, although everyone had already gotten a shot and was fine. Not to mention that you actually _did_ get zenitis that once…"

"Okay, okay, I'm a skeptic. So sue me," Bardock answered. "Maybe that's how I protect myself, alright? Is there anything wrong with doubting?"

"Not that I can see," Tura said.

"I see something wrong with it," Fasha interrupted. "What about Trunks? He revealed himself to us. He trusted us with what may be the biggest secret of all time. Do you want to turn your back on him?"

"He's the 'saiyan messiah'. He doesn't need us," Bardock scoffed.

"He's just a kid," Tura appealed. "He's really too young to be out on his own."

"I was that young when my first crew kicked me out, and I had to fend for myself," Bardock argued. "He's almost twenty. It's just that his home world has made him soft."

"Well, what about all that stuff that you're always saying about family?" Fasha said. "Saiyans used to have families, way back before Freeza took over. You always told me that this, right here, is a family. I, you, and Tura are a family. What about Trunks? Isn't he part of our family, too?"

Bardock scowled in reply.

"We can't abandon him!" Fasha said. "You wanna ditch him just because he's more powerful than you. You don't care about the super saiyan legend, you don't care about what he is. He's just a threat to you. You don't want him taking over your crew!"

"Do you know how long it took me to find you two?" Bardock shouted. "I was on my own for ten years before I found Tura lying in a gutter, starving to death, and another seven before we went to get you on whatever planet it was that you failed to destroy as a kid! I'm not gonna let anything happen to us!"

"Bardock," Tura said in an almost-whisper, "we're not going anywhere, brother. If you think that some kid's gonna change that, then you've taken one too many slugs to the head."

"Yeah," Fasha said, "legend or no legend, we're not going to leave you. And hey, Trunks doesn't have to be blood-brothers with any of us, alright?"

"We don't mean to adopt the guy," Tura said. "We just –"

"Believe," Bardock finished. "Yeah, it must be great to be able to believe in something other than the blood on your own hands. But you know how I am. I could care less about the super-whatever. Freeza's still king. The nightmare's nowhere near over."

* * *

Bardock stood on a cliff and watched the sun rise. He could see the entire forest that had housed his crew through the night. The skies were clear and moist, full of leftover rainwater. A cool, stiff breeze tugged at his hair and drew the little tendrils out of his eyes. The planet's sun was tiny and blue as it rose. It almost looked like a moon but for the light it cast over everything.

"I…sort of overheard you last night." Trunks was standing on the butte behind him, blue eyes shimmering, hair pulled in the same wind. "I heard you talking about me."

Bardock looked out over the cliff again. "Sorry," he said shortly. "I really don't have an excuse for acting the way I did. I have so many problems…"

"Tell me about it," Trunks said easily. "You want to talk?"

"Nah," Bardock answered. "You know me. I'm just a hopeless skeptic."

"You have to be that way for a reason," Trunks pressed. "I mean, you and Tura are thicker than thieves, and he believes in all sorts of supernatural stuff that science disproved a thousand years ago."

"Well, I'm sort of like the leader of my crew," Bardock said. "I built this family up from nothing. Tura was in that gutter I found him in because one time, he came back from a mission so messed up that the medics gave up on him and threw him out. I got tossed in there, too, after a bar fight I lost, but I wasn't too drunk to drag him to Planthor and Malaaca. They fixed him. We didn't think he'd walk again, but now look at him! Right as rain.

"And Fasha failed to take over her planet as a baby. She didn't do anything wrong – she waited until the full moon, made the Uuzaru transformation and everything – but the natives were too strong for her. They made her a slave and cut off her tail. Tura and I were sent to finish that world off, and we brought Fasha home. She was only five, and she already knew what slavery was. She already knew what it was like to be beaten and starved and raped. You know, when you see all the stuff that I've seen, you start to realize that there aren't supernatural forces out there protecting us. When you have to deal with killing and dying and death every day of your life, you sort of…stop believing.

"And then you show up and get us all inspired and worked up! I mean, I'll admit it. Maybe you really are the super saiyan. I can't bear to get my own hopes up, just to be dropped like a newborn xardan. I'm no sucker. Not to mention that I couldn't take that kind of disappointment after everything that's happened to us already."

Trunks smiled ever so slightly. "I thought you didn't want to talk about it," he said, half-jokingly.

"It's not often that I get the opportunity to talk myself into silence… There's so much to say, and nobody gives a damn…" Bardock looked Trunks in the eyes. There was something in the bastard child's pupils and eyebrows that reminded Bardock of nobility. The way his mouth turned down at the corner was familiar, as was the shape of his cheeks and chin, and the familiarity inspired him to ask: "Why did you come here?"

"I came here for selfish reasons," Trunks admitted, turning away. "I came here to learn about my father's people and to get stronger."

"_Get stronger?_" Bardock laughed. "You can still get stronger after all this?"

"Like I said: it's selfish. But I can see now that there's something else I may be able to do for you." Wild hopes flashed through Bardock's mind. Freeza dead, the king restored, Gloknarf every day… "I can give you hope." It all stopped. "But not false hope. I am not the saiyan messiah. I can't kill Freeza for you. It's not my time."

"What – what do you mean 'it's not your time'?" Bardock asked insistently. "Why can't you just go up to the _Optimus_ right now and kill him? I know you could if you wanted to."

"I know I could, too. It would be easy," Trunks answered. "But I _can't_. I want to – believe me, I want to! – but it's not my time."

"What good is hope, then?" Bardock said bitterly. "You just took everything I told you and threw it back at me in a mess…"

"Because I know the messiah. He's coming soon. It won't be too long before you'll find yourself in a place where Freeza can't hurt you anymore." _While Bardock interpreted Trunks' statement wrongly, and pictured an Elysian world, Trunks had actually meant that all the saiyans would either find themselves in heaven or hell, either of which would provide safety from other souls._ "Freeza will be made to suffer." _Which was also true, but not in the way Bardock thought, which was that the messiah, Goku, would kill Freeza, when it would actually be Trunks that would kill him._

"I'm sorry," Bardock said again. "I sort of understand now what the legend means about having a 'pure heart'… It's not about carnage or bloodthirst. I shouldn't have made you fight. But it's too late for me; killing is the only thing that makes the pain go away."


End file.
